I mean, the game is amazing, has amazing dialogues, atmosphere and all that, but damn… the combat is surely a downer. Feels like theres no “real” tactic to the game other than just keep on (mindlessly) trying until the battle is won. And yes, I’ve done all quests, sidequests, with a “non-meme” party on the balanced difficulty and I’m -still- having lots of “please don’t use (x) skill or else my whole run is done for” moments.
That certainly hasn’t been my experience, though perhaps my rolls have been more fortuitous. I’ve been finding the combat challenging, but not overly unforgiving. I do sometimes have to try an engagement more than once to try out different strategies, but most of the time I don’t have to do that. I do have a fair amount of experience with this type of game though, and that makes a big difference.
I catch myself getting frustrated with bad luck more in BG3 than I did in D: OS2. Hit chances seem lower and many abilities are once per rest (and I’m trying to minimise long rests for immersion), so a miss ends up feeling more punishing.
I’m also playing as an Assassin, so basically centered around a high impact surprise round from stealth, and I swear I’m missing more 80%+ sneak attacks than I’m hitting. I guess frustration is part and parcel on a build that gambles everything on one big attack, though.
I wanted to try playing “pure” first, but maybe I need to turn on Karmic Dice. Missing a 94% chance to hit Sneak Attack twice in a row did not feel good. I guess I am too unlucky to just trust the dice.
As someone who is notoriously the worst roller at the table, having your well-built character flub a crucial move they’ve carefully planned feels SO very authentic.
Also spells and cantrips that grant advantage or add dice to the attack roll have felt more impactful in the game than they have at the table.
It’s good to meet a fellow lowroller.
I think AC is higher across the board in BG3. Bless is great, but concentration is a bigger issue here than PNP I feel like - lots of ranged attackers and grenades. I also am forced to take on many encounters without spell slots since I’m trying to lean into the roleplay and so only Long Rest when I’m absolutely forced to.
I just started using Karlach as a Wolf Heart Barbarian recently and that has been great for easy advantage. I might need to respec some NPCs to short-rest classes, too, if I keep getting frustrated. Maybe intended behaviour (on this supposedly time sensitive quest) is to Long Rest every other encounter, and I’m just being stubborn for finding that immersion breaking.
I think it’s meant to vary by encounter, sometimes I’ll do 4-5 encounters before needing to rest, using only a couple spell slots/LR abilities each time, sometimes I get absolutely savaged and need to rest after only one or two. /shurg It does get easier as you level, and long rest casters in particular get more resources. Worth noting too, the time-sensitivity of the quest becomes… much less so, shortly. :P Still urgent, but not “you have one week, then you die, and the Absolute probably takes over the world” urgent.
I suspect the game is balanced around the idea you’ll probably do 2-4 encounters per long rest though, purely given the ratio of short to long rests.